Philadelphia Flyers Beat Isles With Cote's Gritty Play

Flyers' fans should know that their team is in good hands after last night's game. Why you might ask? Because the Flyers got two goals from their fourth line. It gets better when you look at the box score for stats and we see Riley Cote recording an assist.

Players such as Darroll Powe, Riley Cote, and Aaron Asham fueled this club last night. It has been something the Flyers haven't been able to get going all season, until last night.

Cote got into a nasty fight and got banged up pretty bad, ending up with five stitches over his right eye. At least he joke about. "My modeling career is long gone," he said.

"We've been really happy with our fourth line and Riley just continues to work at his game and get better," coach John Stevens said after the game. "I think our fourth line all year has been tremendous. They get pucks deep and spend time on the cycle. It's great to see them get rewarded, because they work so hard and do so many things that aren't necessarily measurable on the stat sheet."

John Stevens should be thrilled after what he saw from his team last night. The Flyers got contribution from almost every line last night. Jeff Carter netted his 20th goal of the season which has him tied for the league lead. Carter is now the seventh-fastest Flyer to score 20 goals.

Darroll Powe got his first NHL point with an important goal to tie the game at 2-2 early in the second period.

"It's pretty surreal," Powe said of his first career NHL goal. "You work your whole life to get here. Then you get here and you finally score that goal that you dreamed of your whole life, so it's a pretty cool feeling."

The Flyers, before last nights win over the Islanders, had been horrible with their even strength scoring. Last night, the Flyers scored three five-on-five goals which is a major lift in the grand scheme of things.

Another great moment that came out of the game was Simon Gagne's game-winning goal in the third period from a nice dish by Mike Richards who also recorded two assists last night. Whoever thought Gagne was a little banged up was wrong as he proved them wrong last night.

The Flyers moved into a second place tie with the Penguins and are now only four points away from the Rangers in the Atlantic division. The Flyers face-off against the Pens this Saturday in the Wachovia Center. The Flyers play the Hurricanes again tomorrow at the Wach.

"We keep trying to help ourselves as best we can," Coach John Stevens added. "But I think if you put your eye on one opponent, you would be making a mistake. There are so many teams above you, around you, below you, that I think we have to tackle each game as it comes."